Catherine Mayer is an accomplished author, journalist, and activist. She co-founded and serves as President of the Women’s Equality Party. Additionally, she co-founded the Primadonna Festival.
Her books include Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly, Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World!, and Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death. The latter features letters from her mother, reflecting on their shared experience of widowhood during the pandemic. In 2022, she released a new edition of her bestselling biography of King Charles III, titled Charles: The Heart of a King.
Catherine has an extensive background in journalism. She worked at The Economist and held deputy editorships at Business Traveller and International Management magazines. She spent 11 years as a foreign correspondent for the German news weekly FOCUS.
In 2004, she joined TIME as a senior editor and later became London Bureau Chief, TIME Europe Editor, and Editor at Large. Catherine also co-founded Datum Future, a data and technology think tank, and sits on the advisory board of Noon, a media platform for women in midlife and beyond.
In 2019, she was the lead candidate for the Women’s Equality Party in the European elections in London. Catherine served as the elected President of the Foreign Press Association in London from 2003 to 2005. She is a founding committee member of WOW—the Women of the World festival—and the Death Festival, launched in 2022, which she co-curated. She was also a judge for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Catherine has received numerous accolades, including the FPA Story of the Year award in 2010 and a shortlist nomination for the Orwell Prize the following year. She has been named in Total Politics’ Top Political Journalists, WIE Women in Excellence 2013, Progress 1000 Evening Standard Equality Champion 2016, Oxford University Suffrage Champion 2018, and Gender Equality Top 100: Most Influential People in Global Policy 2018. In 2018, she shared the NatWest Spirit of Everywoman Award with Sandi Toksvig.
After the death of her husband, musician Andy Gill, Catherine took on his unfinished projects. She released two EPs by his band, Gang of Four, and served as executive producer for a tribute album titled The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, featuring globally renowned musicians.
